Retirement is out of the question for Christopher Walken. For one thing, the 69-year-old actor is more popular than ever, with two critically praised performances in 2012 (“Seven Psychopaths” and “A Late Quartet”) and now “Stand Up Guys,” which marks his first on-screen pairing with two other legendary actors, Al Pacino and Alan Arkin. But even if good roles didn’t come so easy to the oft-impersonated actor, Walken just can’t picture himself relaxing on the shuffleboard court.

“I don’t have anything else to do,” he said in a recent telephone interview. “I don’t have hobbies or kids. I don’t travel. I hope that I can stay healthy and keep doing it.”

Doc, his character in the Fisher Stevens-directed “Stand Up Guys,” sees it differently. After working as an “associate” for a local crime boss, Doc has lived a quiet, meager life in retirement, concerning himself with capturing sunrises over the blighted, concrete landscape in his paintings instead of hustling scores for hire. It’s only when his old partner in crime Val (Pacino) is released from prison after a 28-year stint for killing the boss’ only son that Doc is forced back on the job to settle the boss’ score — or else. But once he reunites with his old, debauched friend, Doc’s spark is reignited.

One only has to see Walken perform — whether in a movie, “Saturday Night Live” skit or talk show — to see what keeps his flame alight. He began performing with his brothers as a child in New York (“you sing a little, you dance a little,” he says) and fondly recalls his 1969 stint in San Diego performing Shakespeare at the Old Globe Theatre. But Walken’s spent much of his career gaining notice for playing what he describes as “loose cannon” characters, be they gravely serious (“The Deer Hunter”) or pure deadpan comedy (“Pulp Fiction”). Although he enjoys the notoriety he’s gained from these edgy roles — he even gets a kick out of the epidemic of impersonations he hears of his staccato, tough-guy speaking style — Walken’s pleased to see more kindhearted roles coming his way.

“I didn’t really see it coming, but I’m starting to get offered uncles, fathers and grandfathers, which is very nice. It’s a new area for me,” he said.

Though his “Stand Up Guys” character carries a gun and has a cordial relationship with the local brothel owner, Doc most definitely fits in with Walken’s new on-screen soft side, even if the actor was originally supposed to play the recently paroled, looking-for-a-party Val. After a few table reads with Pacino as Doc, the men agreed to switch parts. “I’m glad it worked out the way it did, because I felt that if I had played the other part, it would’ve been just more of the same thing for me,” Walken explained.

It’s not only the roles that have changed for Walken. As Doc and his elderly criminal compatriots figure out, technology has overhauled everything, including moviemaking. Though he admits to not owning or knowing how to operate a computer or cellphone (“I have no Internet footprint,” he proudly states), Walken, who also says he gets too nervous behind the wheel to drive, can appreciate how modern technology has revived small-budget cinema, making it possible for an inspired director to make a movie on a serious budget.